Skyscraper Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAEAFEGHI AAJKLHM NOAP NQRSTI UVKWXYZA2B2NC2Y D2E2YF2G2 H2I2J2K2L2M2MCY XN2O2AP2Q2R2F2A2ITYX S2 T2XU2V2Q2W2MQMV2X2BBy day the skyscraper looms in the smoke and sun and | A |
has a soul | B |
Prairie and valley streets of the city pour people into | C |
it and they mingle among its twenty floors and are | D |
poured out again back to the streets prairies and | A |
valleys | E |
It is the men and women boys and girls so poured in and | A |
out all day that give the building a soul of dreams | F |
and thoughts and memories | E |
Dumped in the sea or fixed in a desert who would care | G |
for the building or speak its name or ask a policeman | H |
the way to it | I |
- | |
Elevators slide on their cables and tubes catch letters and | A |
parcels and iron pipes carry gas and water in and | A |
sewage out | J |
Wires climb with secrets carry light and carry words | K |
and tell terrors and profits and loves curses of men | L |
grappling plans of business and questions of women | H |
in plots of love | M |
- | |
Hour by hour the caissons reach down to the rock of the | N |
earth and hold the building to a turning planet | O |
Hour by hour the girders play as ribs and reach out and | A |
hold together the stone walls and floors | P |
- | |
Hour by hour the hand of the mason and the stuff of the | N |
mortar clinch the pieces and parts to the shape an | Q |
architect voted | R |
Hour by hour the sun and the rain the air and the rust | S |
and the press of time running into centuries play | T |
on the building inside and out and use it | I |
- | |
Men who sunk the pilings and mixed the mortar are laid | U |
in graves where the wind whistles a wild song | V |
without words | K |
And so are men who strung the wires and fixed the pipes | W |
and tubes and those who saw it rise floor by floor | X |
Souls of them all are here even the hod carrier begging | Y |
at back doors hundreds of miles away and the brick | Z |
layer who went to state's prison for shooting another | A2 |
man while drunk | B2 |
One man fell from a girder and broke his neck at the | N |
end of a straight plunge he is here his soul has | C2 |
gone into the stones of the building | Y |
- | |
On the office doors from tier to tier hundreds of names | D2 |
and each name standing for a face written across | E2 |
with a dead child a passionate lover a driving | Y |
ambition for a million dollar business or a lobster's | F2 |
ease of life | G2 |
- | |
Behind the signs on the doors they work and the walls | H2 |
tell nothing from room to room | I2 |
Ten dollar a week stenographers take letters from | J2 |
corporation officers lawyers efficiency engineers | K2 |
and tons of letters go bundled from the building to all | L2 |
ends of the earth | M2 |
Smiles and tears of each office girl go into the soul of | M |
the building just the same as the master men who | C |
rule the building | Y |
- | |
Hands of clocks turn to noon hours and each floor | X |
empties its men and women who go away and eat | N2 |
and come back to work | O2 |
Toward the end of the afternoon all work slackens and | A |
all jobs go slower as the people feel day closing on | P2 |
them | Q2 |
One by one the floors are emptied The uniformed | R2 |
elevator men are gone Pails clang Scrubbers | F2 |
work talking in foreign tongues Broom and water | A2 |
and mop clean from the floors human dust and spit | I |
and machine grime of the day | T |
Spelled in electric fire on the roof are words telling | Y |
miles of houses and people where to buy a thing for | X |
money The sign speaks till midnight | S2 |
- | |
Darkness on the hallways Voices echo Silence | T2 |
holds Watchmen walk slow from floor to floor | X |
and try the doors Revolvers bulge from their hip | U2 |
pockets Steel safes stand in corners Money | V2 |
is stacked in them | Q2 |
A young watchman leans at a window and sees the lights | W2 |
of barges butting their way across a harbor nets of | M |
red and white lanterns in a railroad yard and a span | Q |
of glooms splashed with lines of white and blurs of | M |
crosses and clusters over the sleeping city | V2 |
By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars | X2 |
and has a soul | B |
Carl Sandburg
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Write your comment about Skyscraper poem by Carl Sandburg
Andy Voikos: "Skyscraper:"
Excellent poem about the complexity of building construction...brings to life those who had a hand in its creation, and teaches us that a brick & mortar building has a soul, and therein beats a human heart.
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